NGCP warns of thin power supply in the dry season

Pag-IBIG Fund disburses P54-B cash loans in 2022

Pag-IBIG Fund disbursed PHP53.76 billion in cash loans, otherwise known as short-term loans, benefitting a record-high 2,612,491 members in 2022, agency officials reported Tuesday.

For 2022, the amount of short-term loans released by the agency increased by 21 percent or PHP9.46 billion compared to the PHP44.30 billion released in 2021.

With this amount, the number of members assisted through the program rose by 24 percent or more than half a million more than the 2,090,851 members in 2021.

“We at Pag-IBIG Fund exert all efforts in providing our members with assistance on their financial needs. We are happy to note that through our short-term loan program, we were able to aid more than 2.6 million Filipino workers gain added funds to tend to their needs last year. All our efforts are in line with the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to provide the best service to the Filipino people,” Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar, who heads the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

Studentsin the Davao Region aspiring to establish their own startup businesses are encouraged to avail the free three-month intensive entrepreneurship and technopreneurship coaching program of the Davao City-based business incubator Upgrade Innolab (Upgrade).

For the Mindanao grid, the NGCP noted that actual peak demand in 2022 occurred on June 1 at 2:42 p.m., reaching 2,167 megawatts. The forecast peak for 2023 is expected at 2,395MW, which is a 10.52-percent increase.

Pag-IBIG Fund’s shortterm loan program includes its multi-purpose loan (MPL) and calamity loan.

Under the Pag-IBIG MPL, qualified members can borrow up to 80 percent of their total Pag-IBIG Regular Savings, which consists of their monthly contributions, their employer’s contributions, and accumulated dividends earned.

The calamity loan, on the other hand, is made available to members residing or working in areas declared under a state of calamity.

Of the total amount of cash loans released by the agency, PHP49.85 billion were in the form of Pag-IBIG MPLs, which helped 2,313,143 members, FPAG-IBIG, P10

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines Power (NGCP) has warned the public of “thin power supply” in the summer “due to higher demand in 2023.”

The NGCP, in a press statement emailed to reporters on Monday, said that while its projections “show no occurrence of yellow or red alerts, there are weeks between March and April where operating margins are below required levels due to higher demand and planned outages of plants.”

It added that “there are instances of forced or unplanned outages of plants which may disrupt the normal operations of the grid and warrant the issuance of yellow or red alerts.”

Forecast peak for Luzon is at 13,125MW, or an 8.35-percent increase during the peak in 2022, reaching 12,113MW on May 12 at 2:29 p.m. For the Visayas, expected peak is at 2,691MW, or a 16.19-percent increase compared to the actual peak on September 14, 2022, which reached 2,316MW. (Marivic Omandam Davis / MindaNews)